語用論(Pragmatics)を考える

In this rich reference work, Beth Levin classifies over 3,000 English verbs according to shared meaning and behavior Levin starts with the hypothesis that a verb's meaning influences its syntactic behavior and develops it into a powerful tool for studying the English verb lexicon She shows how identifying verbs with similar syntactic behavior provides an effective means of distinguishing semantically coherent verb classes, and isolates these classes by examining verb behavior with respect to a wide range of syntactic alternations that reflect verb meaning The first part of the book sets out alternate ways in which verbs can express their arguments The second presents classes of verbs that share a kernel of meaning and explores in detail the behavior of each class, drawing on the alternations in the first part Levin's discussion of each class and alternation includes lists of relevant verbs, illustrative examples, comments on noteworthy properties, and bibliographic references The result is an original, systematic picture of the organization of the verb inventory Easy to use, "English Verb Classes and Alternations" sets the stage for further explorations of the interface between lexical semantics and syntax It will prove indispensable for theoretical and computational linguists, psycholinguists, cognitive scientists, lexicographers, and teachers of English as a second language Beth Levin is associate professor of linguistics at Northwestern University

English Verb Classes and Alternations: A Preliminary Investigation

In this paper we explore a new theory of discourse structure that stresses the role of purpose and processing in discourse. In this theory, discourse structure is composed of three separate but interrelated components: the structure of the sequence of utterances (called the linguistic structure), a structure of purposes (called the intentional structure), and the state of focus of attention (called the attentional state). The linguistic structure consists of segments of the discourse into which the utterances naturally aggregate. The intentional structure captures the discourse-relevant purposes, expressed in each of the linguistic segments as well as relationships among them. The attentional state is an abstraction of the focus of attention of the participants as the discourse unfolds. The attentional state, being dynamic, records the objects, properties, and relations that are salient at each point of the discourse. The distinction among these components is essential to provide an adequate explanation of such discourse phenomena as cue phrases, referring expressions, and interruptions.The theory of attention, intention, and aggregation of utterances is illustrated in the paper with a number of example discourses. Various properties of discourse are described, and explanations for the behavior of cue phrases, referring expressions, and interruptions are explored.This theory provides a framework for describing the processing of utterances in a discourse. Discourse processing requires recognizing how the utterances of the discourse aggregate into segments, recognizing the intentions expressed in the discourse and the relationships among intentions, and tracking the discourse through the operation of the mechanisms associated with attentional state. This processing description specifies in these recognition tasks the role of information from the discourse and from the participants' knowledge of the domain.

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Attention, intentions, and the structure of discourse

This is an original, important and stimulating book, which attempts a Hegelian synthesis of Piagetian constructivism and Fodorian modularity in terms of the author's own model of ‘representational ...

Beyond Modularity: A Developmental Perspective on Cognitive Science

According to the alternative semantics for focus, the semantic reflec of intonational focus is a second semantic value, which in the case of a sentence is a set of propositions. We examine a range of semantic and pragmatic applications of the theory, and extract a unitary principle specifying how the focus semantic value interacts with semantic and pragmatic processes. A strong version of the theory has the effect of making lexical or construction-specific stipulation of a focus-related effect in association-with-focus constructions impossible. Furthermore, while focus has a uniform import, the sources of meaning differences in association with focus are various.

https://www.sfs.uni-tuebingen.de/~astechow/Lehre/SS06/Focus/rooth92.pdf

A theory of focus interpretation

First published in 1983, this book examines anaphora — a central issue in linguistic theory as it lies at the crossroads of several major problems. On the one hand it is believed that the same conditions that govern the interpretation of anaphora also govern syntactic movement rules but on the other, while anaphora is known to interact with various discourse and semantic considerations, it also provides a clear instance of the dependency of the semantic interpretation of sentences upon semantic properties of natural language. This book has two major goals: the first is a comprehensive analysis of sentence-level anaphora that addresses the questions posed above, and the second is an examination of the broader issues of the relations between the structural properties of sentences and their semantic interpretation within the hypotheses of the autonomy of syntax and of interpretative semantics shown by Chomsky.

Anaphora and semantic interpretation

Analyse du probleme de la thematisation des phrases d'un point de vue pragmatique. L'A. soutient que le theme ne peut etre analyse en termes d'information ancienne et nouvelle, mais seulement en termes d'a-propos pragmatique (pragmatic aboutness).

Pragmatics and linguistics : an analysis of sentence topics

Le fait que les quantificateurs peuvent avoir une portee au-dela de l'endroit ou ils apparaissent ouvertement, a ete demontre en se basant sur l'hypothese d'une operation syntaxique cachee (QR), qui genere la portee pertinente. Mais cette hypothese a ete progressivement abandonnee parce qu'elle presentait un certain nombre de defauts : d'une part, plusieurs quantificateurs sont beaucoup plus restreints que ce qui est predit par QR, d'autre part, certains SN existentiels autorisent une large portee libre qui viole toutes les contraintes sur le mouvement. L'A. montre ici toutefois que cette hypothese d'operation syntaxique cachee peut etre conservee, si l'on resoud le probleme de l'interpretation des SN existentiels par des fonctions de choix

Quantifier Scope: How labor is Divided Between QR and Choice Functions

Thesis. 1976. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics.

The syntactic domain of anaphora

Grimshaw and Rosen have recently argued that the standard binding theory, as formulated in the Governement-Binding(GR) framework is innate. Results indicating that children do not know the coreference aspects of the standard binding theory are due to performance factors that mask this knowledge, leading, in GR's opinion, to the poor scores on tasks that supposedly test it. We will argue that the acquisition finding GR discuss do not lead to the conclusions they reach

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Tanya Reinhart

Papers

Anaphora and semantic interpretation

Pragmatics and linguistics : an analysis of sentence topics

Quantifier Scope: How labor is Divided Between QR and Choice Functions

The syntactic domain of anaphora

The innateness of binding and coreference